Seymour Duncan Pickups Guide Part 1

A mini-guide to a selection of Seymour Duncan Pickups

Changing the pickups on a guitar can be a cost effective way of giving a guitar a new lease of life, and Seymour Duncan pickups are some of the World’s finest. Initially manufacturing just electric guitar pickups, their range now extends to Bass pickups, vintage style pickups, jazz pickups and acoustic guitar pickups. Seymour Duncan has over 30 years of experience in pickup manufacture, and their products feature on some of the World’s most prestigious guitars. This is a small guide to some of Seymour Duncan‘s most popular pickups. An introduction to the basics of what pickups are and what they do can be found here.

Seymour Duncan STHR-1B For Telecaster

The Seymour Duncan STHR-1B is the pickup that can add high gain, humbucking power to your classic Telecaster ‘twang’. A Hot rails style design, the STHR-1B is a humbucker designed to fit into the space of a Tele bridge pickup. This pickup is a humbucker with over wound coils to increase output level. Warm, raw and powerful, the Seymour Duncan STHR-1B is a pickup, capable of heavy rock and metal overdrive tones. When placed alongside a more traditional Tele neck pickup, it creates a hugely versatile guitar.

Seymour Duncan SJBJ-1B

The Seymour Duncan SJBJ-1B is another pickup designed to add humbucker tone to guitar commonly equipped only with single coils. Fitting, conveniently, into the space of a standard Strat pickup, the SJBJ-1B is another high output humbucking pickup. Despite having a full and powerful tone, ideal for all manner of rock, blues, metal and more, this pickup has a far brighter sound, with more high frequencies than you would expect to hear from a humbucker. To further tailor the sound to your taste, the Seymour Duncan SJBJ-1B has height adjustable pole pieces, and to tailor it to your guitar’s look, it is available in both black and white

Seymour Duncan SSL-5

The Seymour Duncan SSL-5 is a single coil pickup. Its over wound coil delivers far higher output than is regularly found on a single coil, the additional gain makes the SSL-5 a great pickup for blues, rock and any style of music in need of some classic biting crunch. However, rich clean tones can be achieved easily by turning the volume down a touch. Commonly used in the bridge position, for lead tones, the Seymour Duncan SSL-5 can add extra versatility to a more traditional pickup configuration. Adding a Seymour Duncan or two to an existing guitar can be a fairly straightforward task, if you are confident using a soldering iron. If you’re not, however, call our stores, who will be able to help, or even fit them for you.

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